AFI (A Fire Inside) is an American alternative rock band, formed in 1991. Originally formed as a Hardcore Punk revivalist band, they continued much in the same way for their first three albums: Answer That and Stay Fashionable, Very Proud of Ya, and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes. Then things took a different turn.

On their 1999 album Black Sails in the Sunset, they supplemented their hardcore sound by experimenting with Goth Rock influences. This trend would continue with their next two albums, The Art of Drowning, which also brought in industrial elements, and Sing the Sorrow, which became AFI's breakthrough album and reaching #5 on the Billboard charts. Then Decemberunderground came around. While somewhat lighter in tone, it was a major success and produced some of AFI's most popular songs, such as "Miss Murder" and "Endlessly She Said".

Crash Love was stated to be a "straightforward rock record" by the band, with a New Wave Music feel and focus on catchy, more upbeat songs. However, it caused some alarm due to percieved abandonment of their hardcore roots. Their 2013 album Burials continues that merger of styles, featuring a dark, operatic feel to most of the songs.

Not to be confused with the American Film Institute. Lead singer Davey Havok and lead guitarist Jade Puget also head an electronic side project, Blaqk Audio and a Hardcore Punk side project, XTRMST.

Kiss my tropes and lay me to sleep:

Album Title Drop: Answer That and Stay Fashionable in "Don't Make Me Ill" and Decemberunderground in "The Interview". Partially also Very Proud of Ya in "Consult My Lover", though the line is actually "Very proud of you".

Anachronic Order: Possibly. "The Leaving Song Part II" is placed before "The Leaving Song" on Sing the Sorrow.

Angry Dance: Davey loves to thrash about in a non-threatening but aggressive and almost acrobatic way when he's on stage.

Celebrity Is Overrated: From Crash Love, "I Am Trying Very Hard to Be Here" is a vain, sassy song about being recognized everywhere and living as a persona.

Crash Love as a whole is a look at society's obsession with celebrity.

Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs: One of their old songs, "Cereal Wars", is about loving extremely sweet breakfast cereals so much that it's impossible to decide which one to pick at the supermarket, and being upset that the supermarket has stopped carrying the sugariest brands. Davey even wishes he could eat the Trope Namer with Calvin and Hobbes.

Cluster F-Bomb: "Cruise Control", albeit not to the extent of most examples.

Color Motif: Most of their albums' physical packages and discs have distinct color setups that match the mood of the album, such as the burning red of Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes, the amber and gold of Crash Love, and the brownish grey of Burials. Their website changes accordingly to suit the new theme.

Concept Album: Not hard-and-fast examples; Word of God states that the major themes of Decemberunderground and Crash Love are isolation and society's obsession with celebrity and instant gratification, respectively. The All Hallow's E.P. could be considered one of these, though arguably only half of it ("Halloween" and "Fall Children")" would really count. Similarly, Sing the Sorrow is about death and rebirth, while Burials is about the emotional fallout of a failed relationship.

Love Nostalgia Song: "The Days Of The Phoenix" is not too far into their career but still very nostalgic for their super-early concert days, and a particular lovely girl.

The Makeover: Davey retooled his personal appearance prior to the release of Crash Love. Sporting a moderate beard and mustache bordered by Perma-Stubble, he looks more masculine, and tones down the width of his large jaws.

His hair has changed distinctly between each album since The Art of Drowning.

The band's clothing motifs has also changed, from the white of Decemberunderground to the suits of Crash Love to now the leather and black of Burials.

Master Poisoner: The story in the "Beautiful Thieves" video is murky and bizarre, but the band ends up killing all the happy, obnoxious, pretty people at the banquet by poisoning their drinks with ease.

Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Their later albums get into this. Black Sails in the Sunset has several songs with Goth Rock elements in it, The Art of Drowning has a couple songs with industrial intros, Sing the Sorrow continues to build on these two genres while having a few unique departures of its own such as "Dancing Thru Sunday" which outright has Jade playing a Heavy Metal style shred solo, while Decemberunderground adds more "mainstream" elements while still continuing with a similar sound to STS. Burials is an outright modern Goth Rock record, with layered production and keyboards.

Non-Appearing Title: Too many examples to list. They usually have at least one song per album that averts this. Burials is the one with most aversions.

Obligatory Bondage Song: Mentions are made of wrist restraints in "Kiss and Control", and "The Interview" refrerences an honest-to-god OBS, "Master and Servant" by Depeche Mode. Then there's "Dream of Waking"...

A large portion of Side Project Blaqk Audio's songs are these, especially "Graphic Violence" off of Material.

Precision F-Strike: "Death of Seasons" and "I Hope You Suffer" have one well-placed F-word each for emotion, and "Cereal Wars" has two for comedy.

Older Than They Look: Davey and Jade both fit the bill. Davey has the general appearance and energy of a man in his late twenties-early thirties despite being 40, and Jade's haircut makes him look far younger than he actually is (Jade is the oldest in the band).

Solo Side Project: Davey Havok and Jade Puget started a side project called Blaqk Audio, releasing an album called Cex Cells. They later started another side project called XTRMST, releasing a self-titled album.

Davey also has a New Wave band called Dreamcar that he founded with members of No Doubt.

Surreal Music Video: "Snow Cats" off of The Blood Album has a trippy video with mirror images of the band playing, the camera zooming into the band members' eyes and mouths, slow-mo shots at points, and uncomfortable angles.

Vocal Evolution: There's a big difference between Davey's voice on Answer That and Stay Fashionable and his voice today; partially due to a change in singing style and to the fact that people's voices naturally continue to deepen somewhat over time.

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